Pledge Class
by Cappunan
Summary: College is everything Sora wanted it to be. He's in interesting classes, he's got interesting new friends, and his best friend, Roxas, is his roommate. If only Roxas wouldn't be so interested in this weird fraternity - and Riku, one of its leaders, would stop having a creepy fixation on him. He's not gay. Seriously.
1. Chapter 1

You know, to be honest, I love to read – but I don't like Hemingway. Like, at all. I don't get the hype, really. And I'm not even one of those guys that's like, "Ugh, I read the Old Man and The Sea and it was so boring" and then they just write him off. No, I'm not like that at all! I'm an intellectual, I swear. I go to the University of Traverse which is apparently a pretty damn good school, so there's your proof. I started learning about the guy in my General Honors English Composition two class, which is not at all what it sounds like (you know, an instructional on, well, composition). It's actually one giant course on Hemingway. No, I don't get it either. I just know the professor is one big giant Hemingway wannabe, and that is pretty much every single class he teaches. A Hemingway fiesta. Estravaganza. Hemingwaypalooza. And hey, that's great, I'm glad he likes Hemingway! People should have their passions. But we have to read every single one of his short stories – his over fifty short stories – and I am not digging them. And that's like fifty stories I'm not digging. And I really want to, but how am I supposed to like all this stuff about bull fighting, hunting, fishing, blah blah blah. I guess I was never really the manly type in the first place, though, so that's all lost on me from the beginning.

Otherwise, I've come to the conclusion that in the one month I've been here, the University of Traverse has some great professors, decent food, cool town, and the people here are fun. I don't have too many friends yet, though, except for Roxas, my roommate, but he doesn't count because we grew up together. We're that duo, the ones that are like brothers, that come in a package deal; you invite one of us, you get both of us. You know those guys. They're annoying and flakey. Well, that's us. The only natural follow up would be to go to college together, obviously. Together we've been making a pretty solid friend group. We've got some Tidus, some Wakka, some Selphie and Pence, and occasionally Hayner decides to mold himself into us; it all makes one giant and healthy friendship salad. I like the salad. It has lots of good flavor, and it's filling.

And yet, here I am, alone in the cafeteria, with none of my crouton or cheese buddies to be found at the most important meal of the day: breakfast. Luckily, there's not too many people that eat with big groups at nine in the morning. I think no matter what kind of person you are, the mornings should be reserved for some 'me' time. Sausage and eggs can come too. Even I, the guy who came in second for "most friendly" in highschool, need some time to hear my own thoughts. Even if they're about how much I dislike Hemingway.

Across the cafeteria, there's some guy with a mullet that came in a few minutes ago and he's walking around to all of the tables and talking to the people sitting there. He's gonna make his way over here soon. There's lots of upperclassmen that do these kinds of things. I'm not really sure if I should try to finish my food before he comes so I can leave – but a few minutes pass and I am not a fast enough eater it seems.

"Hey man, do you have time to talk?" He smiles, tall and lunging over me. He's freakin huge. How could I say no to the Great Wall?

"Yeah sure."

"Awesome, awesome. So do you... well, okay, first of all my name is Demyx, and I guess I should ask you about your year here. I'm guessing you're a freshman."

"Yep, I am."

"Great, cool. So have you been getting along around here? Got to know a lot of people?"

"Yea-"

"Because if you want to make lots of friends here, you should definitely look into greek life. Especially chi epsilon, that's my fraternity and it's the best fraternity, and anybody who's anybody will tell ya that." He pulled out a flier from his pocket and slid it over to me, on it written, 'GI INTEREST MEETING ΧE CHI EPSILON'. "We're having our general interest meeting this Thursday in the student union building room two thirty-eight. You should definitely stop by, we're looking for new pledges."

Politely I nodded and grinned. "Yeah dude I'll think about it. Thanks for letting me know!"

"No problem!" He gave me a thumbs up and walked away, while I waited the lag time for him to be gone to avoid awkwardness, I watched him out of the corner of my eye and saw him walk over to some other guy with long, white hair (weird); I was a bit skeeved out when I realized the white-haired guy was looking in my direction. They talked briefly, and as I got up and ignored them, I was shouted at by Demyx.

"Hey!" He yelled. "What's your name?"

"...Sora."

I wasn't graced with a response, instead of being stared at by the both of them. Whatever.

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I came back from classes at around five and found Roxas laying on his bed, face down, looking pretty finished with life.

"Fuu ay ams." He mumbled into his bed.

"Uh, what?"

He turned his head to the side for my hearing pleasure. "Fuck. Eight. AMs."

"Ooooooh. Today was the long day?"

"I can't do this for three more months, Sora."

I plopped down on my bed and opened my laptop. "You can, and you will!" I exclaimed.

"Whatever, mom."

"Tsk. What happened to my baby Roxas? He used to be so nice to me."

He groans, "He's dead inside."

"Hmm." I checked the syllabus for every class, as I did everyday, and saw the oncoming deadline for one of those horrible papers college kids have to write. "I already have a deadline in two weeks. First paper of college. I have to read a book about European imperialism during the 1800's – I'll probably wait until the last night... you think I can do it? It's a six pager."

"No, if I have to be a good student, you have to be too. Just start it now."

"...No." I pouted, trying my darnedest to be cute at him, but my attempts were thwarted by his roll over to face the wall. Almost resuming my procrastination on my computer, my eye was caught by the very same paper that Demyx had given me earlier in the cafeteria sitting atop the fridge that separated mine and Roxas's beds.

"Ha. He bothered you too?"

"Huh?"

As if he were looking at me, I picked up the paper and waved it in his general direction. "The fraternity thing. That guy with the mullet was trying to make me join today too."

"Oh, that." He rolled back over and sat up, taking the flier from me and examining it himself. "I didn't get the guy you did, I don't think. My guy had this really weird hair."

"My guy had a mullet!"

"Mullets aren't that weird... you've probably seen my guy, his hair is like, bright, _bright_ red, and spiky, and he has tattoos on his fucking face."

Actually, Roxas was right; I had seen him around. It was impossible not to pay attention to him.

"The guy with the green triangles on his face?"

"Yeah."

"I can't believe that guy would be in a frat. I remember seeing him my first day here and I was like... woah."

"Me neither. The guy should be in a fucking circus." It was true.

But still, "He's kinda dazzling in a way..." I admitted. Roxas leered at me silently, and to not discredit myself I added,

"Not that I'm _gay _or anything, it's just, y'know."

He stuck his hands in the air, flat and surrendering. "I know, I know, we've been over this a million times. I get it now, really."

I still glared at him. "Good." Even though I said it, I can't help but be ticked off a little bit every time he makes that stupid gay comment about me.

For about twenty minutes there was a lull in the room that both of us occupied by the internet, scrolling through posts of inspirational quotes or puppies or stars or inspirational quotes on a picture of puppies under the stars. Roxas cleared his throat.

"I actually really like Axel."

I looked up from my computer to stare at him. "Axel?"

"That's the red-haired guy."

"Oh. That's cool..." Suddenly the implications of Roxas' statement thrusted on my brain. "Oh no. You're not joining that fraternity are you?"

Roxas shrugged and looked out the window, studying the trees that reached the third floor of the building we lived on.

"Dude, I thought we would both never do that stuff! No, you're not doing that."

Backing onto his bed, he crossed his arms and furrowed his eyebrows at me. "I'm not saying I'm joining a fraternity. Relax. I just really like Axel. We both like the same weird bands and stuff."

I rolled my eyes. "I like every band you like."

He returned the gesture. "Yeah, you think they're okay. Axel is a huge fan of Blue Bamboozle."

"Blue Bamboozle? I like them! They're good. They have lots of songs I like."

"I know Sora," he sighed, "I know."

He's patronizing me. Peeved, I muttered, "Well if you like Axel so much why don't you just marry him?" He just snorted at me and continued to browse his phone. I whispered, "maybe Roxas is the one who's gay, hm?" just so much that he would probably hear me.

He took a deep breath in and then released it. "Sora, it'll be fine. I'm just gonna go to the GI meeting and see because Axel wanted me to..." smirking at me, he added, "and I'll try to get him involved in the group, and I'll even find out what way he swings for you."

I felt my face heating up. I resented him for that, and as soon as I threw my pillow across the room to hit him, I knew I reacted stupidly. He knew it too.

"This is mine now." He put the pillow nicely on his bed and lay down on it, cascaded in a pool of wonderful puffy pillows. My bed was barren.

"Damn."

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Walking back from history class, Tidus comes riding up next to me on a really sweet long board (that I could never afford) and yanks out my headphones, forcing me to be social.

"Hey dude, how was class?" He asks, stepping off of his board.

"That teacher really doesn't like me, still. I really can't get into Hemingway. He will not leave the guy alone!"

"Yup, I've heard this song before." He smirks. It's true, I've talked about it in detail to everyone.

Especially to Tidus, because he is the closest friend I have here after Roxas. Roxas and I weren't in the same orientation group, and when I was having a pretty difficult time talking to other people, he went out of his way to introduce himself, and was just as cordial when I was eating alone too. All in all, he's a pretty great guy.

"Are you going to lunch with the group?" He asks.

"Uh, am I supposed to?"

"Oh, I dunno. I just assumed because Roxas sent out a text a half hour ago."

I feel like a twit for it, but my heart cried for a moment when I heard that, and how I am for some reason assuming he doesn't want me there. "I didn't get it."

"Oh," he says, and I feel even more like a twit because Tidus looks pretty obviously guilty for a second. "Don't worry dude, he probably just assumed we were meeting up, we usually do."

"Yeah, probably, you're right." It's pretty obvious we both feel awkward, but one of the things I love about Tidus is that is a great conversationalist, and he changes the topic to spare me.

"Did you decide on any teams or clubs yet dude? Fraternity?"

"No, no clubs, and it's too late to join a team. Something about fraternities really weird me out." "I know what you mean. There's too much commitment involved. I'm on the blitzball team – actually, that's what I'm going to now, and I should probably go. I'll seeya later dude."

"Wait," I say, before he speeds off, "should I go to lunch then?"

He looks confused. "What? Yeah man, don't be a bitch."

"Alright." I can't help but smile, and he does in return, then rides in the opposite direction.

It's two o'clock, which is "awkward hour" at the cafeteria, so it doesn't take long for me to spot the gang, it doesn't take long for them to spot me walking in, and it doesn't take me long to spot a giant, blazing flame of red. It is hair, and I recognize it as Axel sitting next to Roxas. It is a pretty full looking table, and they are going to need to put in effort to make room for me. I am actually astounded by my own flash of anger at my obvious isolation from the group. But nice, sweet Selphie's arm shot up and started to wave and it was too late. Hayner, Pence, Wakka and her then congregated for a moment and started to spread out slightly as I slowly approached.

With a smile on my face, keeping my eyes on Selphie and her general direction, I tried to gauge Roxas's reaction out of my peripherals, and I was pretty pissed when I realized he wasn't even looking at me. He wasn't moving, either, and neither was Axel. By the way he scratched his head, and kept his gaze toward Axel, I could tell he was annoyed by my being there.

And suddenly, I walked a little more proudly just to spite him.

"Hey guys!" I wave, there seems to be a little bit of room between Hayner and Wakka for me to squish between.

"Sora!" Selphie squeals, "I was hoping you'd come!" There are nods of agreement, none from Roxas and Axel, though. Unlike Roxas, Axel is looking at me.

"Hey." He says, with an unenthusiastic wave. "I'm Axel."

"Yeah, I know."

I turn and go get food, leaving my sass floating around in the area. I give myself some time to choose from the paltry selections (some hotdogs, salad, fries, the usual). When I come back, all seems normal. I take up some conversation with Wakka about blitzball and his leg injury, the reason he is not there today particularly. Wakka is a sophomore and a veteran of the team, and therefore is allowed some leverage. When he talks about the sport, it sort-of kind-of makes me want to join, but also seems like too much to do for my first semester. Occasionally Hayner joins in, mouth full of "struggle" propaganda. I think I might be better at that, considering my previous sword experience.

"You guys should skip sports and join my fraternity." Axel interrupts, and my (probably) unwarranted hatred for him admonishes me to almost punch him in the face. No, I'm not joining your stupid fucking fraternity. He's not really looking at me anyway; he's eyes are switching between Wakka and Hayner, and I think he's doing that to piss me off.

"It's a little late in the game for that, at least for me." Wakka says.

"Seems like a lot of work not to be able to smoke or drink for a month." Hayner adds. Though I don't drink or smoke all that much, I nod anyway.

"Yeah, but then you have friends to smoke and drink with all the time." Roxas retorts, which surprises me.

"Except you have to trade a chunk of your dignity for them." I bite back.

"Who says?" He asks with obvious irritation.

"It's called "hazing", Roxas, sometimes people die from them."

"Not all fraternities haze!" It's almost funny how angry Roxas is getting.

Axel steps in, putting his hand in front of Roxas's face. "Woah, okay, just to be clear, our fraternity..." Axel lowers his head, and instinctively the whole table, including myself, lowers heads to meet him, "...does haze." he says in a whisper. "But we all have to do it. It's a bonding experience."

"What do you guys do?" Hayner voices for us.

He laughs. "I can't tell you that."

I roll my eyes. "Some satanic, goat-eating shit."

Wakka, in a subtle gesture, pats my hand with his own under the table, and I assume he's trying to tell me to calm down without embarrassing me. I glance to him and give him a small smile, trying to cool down.

"Well, I'm done. Are you done Axel?" Roxas asks, and Axel nods. They both get up, and Roxas bids everyone farewell without looking at me in particular.

"Bye Selphie, Wakka, Hayner. It was nice to meet you." He looks at me, with a more sarcastic look. "Sora." He takes off, and I try to keep Wakka's gesture in mind.

No one speaks until they leave the cafeteria.

"Holy crap. That guy was weird." Hayner says, and expectedly I laugh.

"Don't worry, Sora, we like you better!" Selphie interjects, and I laugh again. I can't help but wonder if I am really that transparent.

A/N: This story has a lot of dialogue, I'm sorry. This is very guilty pleasure for me. Lol. Anyway, this chapter didn't have much Riku, but I promise you this story is gonna be Riku/Sora, and he will come in eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Yeesh, I'm looking back at that last chapter and cringing at how badly written it is. I messed up all my tenses and there's tons of other mistakes. Hopefully I stick with present tense this chapter. I'm sorry. Also I'm sorry for the Zoolander reference.

AAALSO just to let you guys know, pretty much all references will be "American" references. This story won't have anything Japanese related. I know that technically the characters are Japanese, but I feel more comfortable writing it this way.

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After lunch, I killed an hour or two in the library just to avoid going back to my room. I didn't have much to do, so I mostly just goofed around on the computers and looked at book titles. I found nothing interesting; most of the books were for reference. However, I did pick out a poetry book after reading only a single poem from it, and then pat myself on the back for branching out my interests. I also picked out a random mystery novel – I have no idea what it is, but random picks have worked out in my favor before. I'll give it another shot.

I know I have to go back, so I make the short walk from the library to Flick Rush dorm as slowly as possible. What do I do, what do I say to Roxas? A thousand different scenarios pop into my head. I'm not even sure what happened, really, and I'm not sure if I'm sorry. I'm really only sorry that Roxas is mad at me, but I don't think I did anything wrong. Maybe I'll get lucky and he won't be there, or he'll break the ice, though I doubt it. He never does. I'm not even sure if it really would be better if he wasn't there – I gotta talk to him eventually.

Front door, swipe card key. I am very nervous for some reason. Unfortunately I am on the first floor, so there's nowhere to run. Was that even a fight? Now I am hoping he really won't be there. I think it is because Roxas and I have never really argued before, and if we have, we were always alone, in the same room. It seems to make all the difference that other people are involved now. Before we would have thought this was ridiculous. This is still just ridiculousness plus people, nothing more.

With that in mind, I swipe the key card again, opening my door.

I prayed two prayers, one for Roxas to be there and one for him not to be there, and the prior one was answered.

Roxas laid there on his bed nonchalantly, typing away at his laptop, headphones in ears, barely sneaking a glance at me. I go to my side of the bed (less than quietly). He still ignores me. But I'm still pretty ballsy, and seeing him in person isn't as scary as the vision in my head.

"Roxas." I say.

A little louder. "Roxas."

"Roooxas."

"Roxa-"

"What?" He says finally, less annoyed than I expected.

"Oh." Suddenly on the spot, I'm not sure what to say. "Well that..." That was what? "That was kind of a train wreck, huh?"

He looks up from his laptop and over to me, and actually smiles. "Yeah it was." He takes out his headphones and throws himself back on his bed, arms spread out. I sit up against my wall and debate whether or not to say something, and then decide I should.

"Roxas, I'm sorry, I guess, Tidus told me you guys were doing lunch and-"

"What?" He interrupts, looking surprised and and angry at once. "What, no Sora, don't be sorry, there's nothing to be sorry about. I was acting like a prick. I should have just told you... sorry."

"Told me what? That you didn't want to eat lunch with me? It's not really that big of a deal anyway."

He sighs like he's annoyed. "Sora, it's not that I necessarily didn't want to eat lunch with you. I just wanted to introduce Axel just to you on a separate occasion – you're not going to understand it, but I'm trying to kind of... grow my own wings here." He makes a flapping motion with his hands that looks kind of silly to me. "And you're my best friend, obviously. I can't really explain it myself, but I just didn't want to introduce him to you like you were just a part of the regular group."

I am so confused, and make him aware I am. "I don't understand that reasoning at all, dude."

It almost sounds like Axel is his girlfriend or something... which would make him his boyfriend. Roxas never struck me as gay. Is he gay? I wonder if he'll be offended if I seriously ask him. He probably shouldn't be; after all, he's pulled the same crap on me tons of times.

"So Axel is your boyfriend, or something?"

Roxas stares at me wide-eyed for a moment, then starts to laugh, and I wait for him – not knowing if he's laughing at what I said or if he's laughing as some kind of defense mechanism. I try to maintain a serious composure, ready to tell him that I accept him for whatever he is or whoever he fucks or loves, but his response is making it hard. His laughing goes on for another fifteen seconds or so.

"Sora," he hitches out, "no, ha, I'm not gay – but good job for trying to turn the tables on me. Almost."

Though I pretend to be annoyed, I am happy because it seems the tension has broken a little. I reach for the laptop on my desk and pull it over to my lap, open it and do the usual checking of social media.

"But..." He says after a few minutes, "I want to let you know, I am pledging for Axel's frat."

I look up at him, but his face is turned back toward his computer, a Roxas way of not wanting to talk about the subject anymore. I won't let him get away with just that.

"Why?" I know it will be a chore for him to explain – explicating anything is a chore for him.

He takes only one ear bud out this time. "Because I want to meet new people. I want to be part of something. It's not that I don't love you anymore, I know that's what you're thinking. We are still gonna be together a lot of the time, I promise. But I like the guys in this group." He puts an earbud back in. "Maybe you should even think about joining the frat, or any frat."

As if I would ever do that. It's not that I wouldn't like a big group of friends, but I can have those without having to earn anyone's respect by humiliating myself. The thing that bothers me about any group like that – any really tight sports group, or sorority, fraternity, cult, or club, is the idea that I could never leave to explore different things and meet new people. There's too much security. Too much exclusiveness. I like people too much to be held down by that much selfishness. And way, way too much begging for companionship. That would be below me.

Still, Roxas doesn't seem like he's begging too much himself. What I can see from Axel, he seems like he's being accepted, and they seem to like him. And that's all that matters. I should be happy for him.

"Roxas," I say loudly enough for him to hear me. He turns his face slightly towards me, but doesn't take his eyes from the screen. "I'm happy for you dude." I say, and then he does look at me. "Seriously. If you like them, that's fine with me. Just don't let them screw you over, and don't forget me."

He smiles reassuringly at me, "Don't worry. Neither of those things are gonna happen." he says. And that's good enough for me.

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This Thursday morning at 9 AM, I don't go to the cafeteria. This time I go to the student union building, where they are selling delicious bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, which I have to pay money for, but that's okay because again, they are delicious. There is no one with me either, which is okay, because I have eggy bacon and cheese to keep me company.

I feel as though I am starting to know the people around me without actually knowing them. I recognize that some of them are freshman, but most of the people sitting at the tables (which are a lot less than in the cafeteria) are upperclassmen, and I've seen all walking around campus. Actually, I notice Yuffie, who was my tour guide when I came to visit last year, sitting across the room. As some people have that uncanny ability to sense people looking at them, she lifts her head up and waves to me. I wave back, and her friend who has blonde dreads looks up and waves too with a grin on her face, even though she doesn't know me. Sometimes I can't believe how great the people are here. Their kindness just makes me warm inside.

I take a bite into my sandwich – you'd expect it to taste greasy and processed, but no. These are wonderful. I might consider asking the chief how she makes it. Just awesome. It's a perfect way to start my busy day, and I have a lot to do. I have English (that one class I dread), history to 1850, weather and environment, then I have to go to the gym and a few other things. I also have to write an essay tonight for tomorrow and suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey," an unfamiliar voice says from behind me.

I start to turn but he already sits down in the chair across the table. It's that guy that was looking at me that day in the cafeteria, the one without the mullet. His silver hair is tied back into a pony-tail and he's wearing a very expensive looking white and yellow vest. He looks like a hollister model; it's a little intimidating, i'll admit. He's got these really green eyes that stand out from the rest of his face. What is it with these frat guys being really, really ridiculously – objectively – good looking?

Lots of weird surprises lately. Why is he talking to me?

"Uh, hey." I say, unsure of how to present myself to him.

"How are things for you?" He asks. Although I can't place what, there is something weird about how he is asking me. Like he's asking me about something specific. I think someone would usually say, "what's up?" or the like.

"Uh, good. Yeah, you?"

"I'm fine, but I wanted to see how you were liking things so far with us." His eyes were trained on me and there's really no way to read this guy, unless he's really just that bored that there's nothing there. What's 'with us' supposed to mean anyway? The college? This guy is weird.

"Uh, yeah. Traverse is great, I really like the people here." I say, mustering up my best socially-conscious half smile.

"You know," he says smirking, "you don't have to quiet yourself that much just because I'm your superior. I like to hear feedback."

Superior? "Uh..." I search my head for a response, and before I can think about a better one, I blurt out, "Geeze, I think you need to check your ego. Just because you're an upperclassmen doesn't make you my damn boss." I bite out with probably a little more sting than I intend. Though I try, I can't really control the heat that's flowing to my face right now, and I don't know if it's out of anger or embarrassment of this situation.

I almost chuckle because he eyes are so wide you'd think I slapped him. And then his face contorts into this sort of 'angry father' look that I can't really describe otherwise. Instinctively, I feel the need to apologize. "Uh, sorry, I'm just-"

"Where do you get the balls to talk to me like that, pledge?" He barks, and before I can even process the situation, he takes my bacon egg and cheese out of my right hand and smashes it on the table, squishing it for extra influence. I'm so startled I can't even get words out. The bang he made when he brought it down freaks me out so much that my other hand is now shaking underneath the table. I gulp in attempt to bring saliva back into my mouth. Pledge? Does he think i'm pledging? Strange enough, as I look around, I can see that no one is really looking over here. I thought his voice, or at least the bang, would have been enough to attract attention. I guess Yuffie doesn't want to come save me.

He leans back casually, wiping little grains off of his hand, and smirks more menacingly this time. "You'll see that I'm the guy leading this, if I even let you get far enough to. Maybe I will if you give me a really convincing apology." He waits there, while my mouth is half open in shock, as if I will actually give him one.

As the saliva does eventually return to my mouth, I'm starting to realize what he's thinking. "You don't think i'm pledging for your fraternity, do you?" And as his face twists from cocky to confused, my suspicions are confirmed.

"You're Roxas, aren't you?" He asks, brows furrowed. The look and the question actually does force me to laugh this time.

"No, I'm Sora. It's okay, people mix us up a lot. We look a lot alike." I try to send a reassuring smile. He still seems like he isn't processing it, and suddenly his head drops, and he starts to shake it back and forth. I may have broken him. I dumbly mutter out, "Uhhh..." unsure of what to say.

"I am so sorry." he says quietly. Suddenly his head whips upward and he stares at me intently, making me squirm in my seat. "It's just, the eyes, the hair, the height..."

"Yep, yeah, I know." I snicker, thinking of all the times we had been confused. It's really uncanny how much we do look alike; we could be brothers. I would be lying if I said we hadn't tried to play it off before. "It's happened a million times. Don't worry about it man!" Quickly I gather my backpack and get up, flashing a small smile, and attempt to book it before any more awkward apologies.

"Wait." He gets up and before I can move my legs any further, he grabs my arm in a rather aggressive way and pulls me back toward Gepetto's. He grabs another sandwich, and while still hauling me around with his sweat sticking to my skin, buys it (the cashier looks mildly worried, at least someone is), and shoves it into my other hand.

"Thanks..." I trail off. I kill a microscopic amount of time by stuffing it into my pocket, and mutter, "I'll just save that for later." We slowly walk away from Gepetto's, and I look around for a moment. The awkwardness that I was afraid of prevailing prevails. All the while he is staring at me with this very concentrated look on his face, eyes completely exposed not saying a word, while I hide behind my bangs, occasionally looking in his direction. Every time my eyes shift, I see he is still looking at me. The guys a mountain, he's probably a full five inches taller than me. I am not sure what else to do, or what move to make. There is noise around us, but in our little bubble, there is a haunting resonance of silence.

My feet shift a bit towards the doorway, and I make one last glance at him, flashing a small smile of acknowledgment, and beck on my way quickly. I don't look back as I turn the corner, but to my absolute horror I hear the footsteps of what sounds like new hundred dollar sneakers. I speed up, terribly afraid of what I know is probably him following me. I have no idea _why _he would be following me, though, and I am sort of freaked out – on the other hand, I don't want to give him the impression that I'm trying to run away from him, that might cause more trouble (and I don't really like to offend people). After debating the options, I decide to slow down a bit.

The footsteps slow with me. This is so uncomfortable. I see finally that he strides in step, walking up next to me, and this time does not look at me but straight ahead. Still, there is a clear intention that he wants to travel with me.

"You're not very subtle." He says quite abruptly. I assume he is referring to my escape attempt. He is doing a great job of contaminating my comfort zone.

"Well, who are you to judge me about that?" I ask with a little more confidence. "I don't even know you!"

"But I think I like your disposition." he says as if I hadn't said anything at all to his last comment. "I'm sorry if this sounds strange, but I also like the sound of your voice."

My cheeks heat up again. What a strange thing to say, and yet, I am so flattered for God knows what reason. "Uh, thanks. You're a very nice person." I say with another smile, looking to him, and when I do he looks away.

"Don't get me wrong, Sora, I wouldn't want you to think that." He says with a slight sing in his tone. "I'll see ya around."

He veers off to the left, toward some person in a black hoodie. The person, though shaded by the hood, is looking at me, but my previous company doesn't. What a strange guy.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That night, Roxas unlocks our door.

"Uh, dude, the door locks the other way." I say. Perhaps he meant to actually do that.

"I know, I need to leave it open." He says. How vague.

"Why?"

"We might get a visitor." It bothers me when he purposely leaves out information. He knows I'm going to ask him anyway, so why not just tell me?

"What kind of visitor? And how are they gonna get into the building? Why don't you just leave it locked, then they can text you and let you know?"

"Sora," he starts, "do you have to ask so many questions?"

I huff. "Yes."

"Don't worry about it." He jumps into his bed, and turns out the lights for some reason. If he's expecting someone, it's weird that he'd turn out the lights. Something is amiss. But I don't want to bother him more.

At some point, I awake to a pounding on the door. My heart is doing dives. What the hell? It is pitch black, and as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I see that Roxas is up.

The door flies open. The light from the hallway silhouettes three figures, one who I can immediately recognize is Axel by the shape of his hair. The other two I do not recognize. They do not make much noise at first, but once they shut the door behind them, they start hollering and chanting. I have never hated a group of people so much. Checking the clock placed on the fridge, the time reads _2:09_. Why in the world would they do this, at this time?

There is no light, but Axel and the other two have the wonderful decency to shine their bright mini-flashlights everywhere, including onto my face. As I am trying to process all of this, someone (I think it may be Axel) says, "Smile, Sora!" I see a flash of bright light aimed at me along with a "click" sound – and whoever said that has taken a picture of me, probably looking like an idiot.

"Cute picture." He says, and before I can reply, he's out the door, the other two holding Roxas by his hands and feet, running away with him. Everyone leaves, and I am alone again.

I don't even think about it. I go back to sleep.


End file.
